Memory in Play: From Aeschylus to Sam Shepard, and: Technologies of Memory in the Arts (review)

During the final quarter of the twentieth century, doubtless at least partly in response to the impending end of this momentous century, the subject of memory, and especially social and cultural memory, became a topic of great interest among researchers in a wide variety of fields. The opening of the new century has seen no lessening in this interest, as the appearance of these two ambitious and stimulating recent works on the subject clearly demonstrates. Although both books take memory as their central concern, and both build upon the contributions of major memory theorists of the twentieth century like Halbwachs, Connerton, and Nora, their approaches, the type of material they are studying, and the insights they offer into the vast and complex field of memory studies are quite different.

Attilio Favorini's basic concerns and the insights he offers are very much in harmony with contemporary perspectives, but his book is a much more traditional one. As his subtitle indicates, this is, despite its current concerns and the originality and depth of its insights, a book that draws upon a long tradition of scholarly work—the close analysis of a variety of dramatic works from a particular thematic and organizational perspective. The book argues, and convincingly demonstrates, that memory is as significant as the more familiar categories of class or gender in the construction of character and dramatic action.

Favorini's approach is roughly chronological, with three chapters devoted to the use of memory in pre-modernist drama, when, he argues, the true "memory play"—with memory as the central area of the drama's attention—had not yet made its appearance. The first chapter deals with characters concerned with memory, with Hamlet taking pride of place; the second provides a quick overview of historical plays and memory from Aeschylus to late-twentieth-century documentary plays; and the third considers what Favorini feels are precursors of modern memory-play authors—dramatists like Ibsen, Strindberg, and O'Neill. Subsequent chapters discuss the fully developed "memory play," in which memory becomes the central concern of the work, as Favorini argues is the case in the work of dramatists like Williams and Miller. In the late twentieth century, memory continues to be central though more problematic and analytical, as in the work of dramatists like Pinter, Beckett, and Shepard. A final chapter considers the interplay of memory and history, looking into Holocaust dramas and the commemorative dramas of suppressed or vilified groups.

Favorini's approach not only provides fresh and provocative readings of familiar works, but striking new interconnections between them. At least as important as the original perspectives on classic works, however, are the many excellent analyses of generally neglected works given new life and significance by Favorini's close readings and thoughtful discussion of their contributions to modern drama's ongoing engagement with memory. While Favorini has, not surprisingly, illuminating and original things to say about such familiar memory dramas as Our Town, Death of a Salesman, Old Times, and Krapp's Last Tape, a fascinating and valuable part of his study is the analysis of little-known or (more in keeping with the theme of the book) now-forgotten dramatic works that also provide important perspectives on this subject, such as Robert Sherwood's 1931 Reunion in Vienna—the subject of a particularly detailed and useful analysis—Owen Davis's 1918 Forever After, and Jean Anouilh's 1937 Traveler without Luggage.

The very successes of this book will doubtless cause frustration in some readers. It is, as was remarked above, very traditional, if not in the emphasis on memory, then certainly on the origins of the works chosen for study: as Favorini admits in his opening remarks, his focus is "selective and Eurocentric rather than global." He goes...